But I am different. He brings storms—over incredible distances and with such astonishing power to them, I think I’ll never match his prowess—and he can sustain them. When he stalled the Dasnarian navy during the Deyrr War, he summoned that storm from Annfwn and held it there, at full power, for five days, with an eye of calm for our ships.”
“I’ve heard the story,” Rhy commented drily. Countless times. Their parents loved to tell the tales of their heroism in the glory days. Talk about something that could be burnt in the fire and consigned to the past. He was almost too warm now in his heavy cloak, and shrugged it open to hang down his back.
“I don’t know how he did it.” Salena shook her head, moonlight rippling over the long fall of her hair, no longer blowing in any wind. Above them, the pennants lay limp against their tethers, and silvering clouds scudded across a black sky, fleeing in all directions as if banished. She lowered her arms, studying the sky. “It will take a bit more to clear,” she said, more to herself than to anyone, Rhy thought, “but that will do it. Harlan?”
“Yes, Princess?” Harlan rejoined them, saying Salena’s title like an affectionate nickname. Like Rhy, he’d shrugged back his heavy cloak. Smiling broadly, he gestured at the limp pennants. “It’s like a miracle.”
Salena smiled with genuine pleasure. “You can tell Her Majesty that we are on schedule. I’ll keep the clouds over the moon until midnight and the relighting.”
He beamed and bowed. “I’ll go inform Essla, and we’ll allow the guests to begin to ascend. Will you two be all right on your own until I return? I can send out a guard, but I’m working with a skeleton crew tonight, and I rather keep them in other, key positions.”
Rhy rolled his eyes, but only Salena saw it, giving him a narrow glare. “Yes, we’ll be fine. Thank you.” She hugged him again and he departed, leaving them alone.
~ 10 ~
“Alone at last,” Rhyian said, just a hint of his wicked smile showing as he retrieved the carafe of mjed and filled their glasses. He handed her one and held his up in a toast. “To you, Salena, the most extraordinary woman I know.”
She felt her face heat, the keen pleasure of his praise almost more than she could bear. Rhyian’s opinion had always mattered to her. It had mattered too much, which was one part of why his casual dismissal of her and what they’d shared had been so devastating. Knowing now that he had been in love with her… She accepted the toast and drank, the mjed burning on its way down.
Rhy smiled at her, then cast his gaze to the clearing sky. The magic tugged at her, holding steady for now, though it would get more difficult to hold the artificial bubble around them as time passed. “I don’t see this famous crystalline moon,” he said, frowning at the bright quadrant of the sky where the moon’s silver rays streamed, silhouetting the boiling black clouds.
“I’m keeping that cloud bank in place until the relighting,” she explained, “then I’ll pull it back for a grand reveal at midnight.”
“What is this relighting?” he asked, and she paused in surprise. Of course the Tala observances differed from theirs. And even in Nahanau, they didn’t celebrate the light from darkness as people did in the colder, darker regions.
“You’ll see,” she replied with a coy smile. “It’s a better surprise to experience it for the first time.”
“True of many things,” he said in a low, warm voice, edging closer to her. She didn’t have much room to evade him in that corner between the tower wall and the parapet—nor did she have the willpower to do so. Temptation, thy name is Rhyian. He slid his fingers down a lock of her hair as if savoring the texture, then wound it loosely around his finger. “Have I told you that you’re more beautiful now than ever?”
“No,” she breathed. He meant it, too. One thing about Rhyian—he didn’t flatter idly. If anything, he was too honest about his feelings, both the delightful and the cruel. This was dangerous, and yet she couldn’t make herself put a stop to it. She’d missed him. Despite everything, she’d missed him. And this.
He took the glass from her and set it beside his on the parapet. Turning back to her, he slipped both hands into her hair, combing it back from her face,